The Botanic Garden is getting behind the World Wildlife Fund and the international celebration of Earth Hour or Hora del Planeta (in Spanish). There will be a bike ride leaving from Carlos E. Restrepo at 6:30 p.m. with arrival at the Parque de los Deseos at 8:00 p.m. That signal the start of a free concert by Medellin’s Philharmonic Orchestra.The parque is located adjacent to the Jardin Botanico and just to the south.

Other Colombian cities celebrating Earth Hour include Bogotá, Cali, Pasto, Yumbo and Mocoa. Please tun off you lights between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. to remind people we need to be reducing our contributions to adverse climate change. Please think carefully about what your personal responsibility is in protect our future.

Medellin is developing a program designed to provide assistance to the adult homeless. It has six main components:

Attention in the Street: concentrating on parts of the city where they frequently congregate. This includes community awareness and education programs as well as hot lines too identify people in need of help.

Centers for Attention: to basic social and therapeutic needs as well as motivation to improve their situation. These centers also provide linkages to other services.

Resocialization and Social Inclusion: Strives to get people better connected with family, the community and the world of work using therapy and education.

Community: Educates the community at large about how the program works.

Attention to Institutional Opportunities: Receives, identifies, diagnoses and refers with follow up, people who enter the system as indigents, with physical illnesses, those who are convalescing, or dieing.

Adult Homeless Attention Unit: Assists people who for reasons of physical or mental deterioration are unable to develop a family life or cannot integrate socially and who are a danger to themselves or others.

For information you can call the following numbers: 514-2184, 511-1821, or 514-1722. You can also call the 123 hotline and their email is sistemahabitantedeca@medellin.gov.co

I encourage everyone to become familiar with the program and help make this a community effort for the betterment of life in Medellin.

Yesterday evening we went over to the Estadio Atanasio Giradot sports complex to see an exposition of Urban Garden design. That was an interesting event but I came away deeply impressed by the sports complex itself. After viewing the garden/landscape displays we happened to go into the gymnastics facility just to see what it was like.

What we found was a space for young people to learn and engage in gymnastics as sport. There were kids ranging from around 6 to teens and perhaps a bit beyond all learning and practicing. I kept thinking that with this kind of opportunity, in not to many years a lot more Colombians will be taking medals in the Olympic games.

The complex was remodeled for the 2010 South American Games at a significant cost. The work was well done and the result is a beautiful and very functional venue for future large scale events. This in its self will contribute to Medellin’s position as a destination in South America. More importantly; the use of the facility to provide spaces for human scale, day-to-day activities that fulfill needs for personal satisfaction and growth, expand and deepen the quality of life in this growing metropolis.

Our future depends on our ability to find meaning and satisfaction in activities such as athletics, dance, gardening, service to others and a vast range of other human capacities that do not require significant material inputs. A day is coming when the human race will face the sobering fact that the growth of our physical economies must stop. There are only so many resources and so may places to put our wastes. The implementation of a steady state economy will occur and it can be done smoothly by design or we can just blindly walk into the limits to growth inherent in life on a finite planet. The latter option is likely to be similar to walking into a buzz saw. What I saw at the sports complex is a clue to how we can organize our lives to fit the dimensions of our environment. It also is an indication of how government can facilitate the move toward a rational economy.

What do you do when there are no roads to your village and your mission is to see that the kids have an opportunity to learn and expand their horizons. Bring in the Biblioburro. This is a very creative solution to a serious problem and to me a beautiful one. This is the bookmobile that goes where the Hummer fears to tread.

Biblioburro is the creation of of Luis Soriano, a primary school teacher at la Gloria, Colombia. Transportation is provided by Alfa y Beto, the two members of the logistics team. Biblioburrro arrives in the village on weekends when Mr. Soriano is not teaching his regular classes!

This is a classic example of development as opposed to growth. Improved quality of life without a significant increase in the the throughput of materials and energy. The growth mindset would have built a four-lane to the village. Thank you Mr. Soriano.

If you did not notice the link words above please click here to see images of Biblioburro.